The use of teleconferencing systems is commonplace when meetings extend across multiple locations. Attendees typically gather in an office or meeting room and are seated at various locations about the room. The room used for the teleconference is typically not equipped with special sound tailoring materials, and echoes of both near and far-end voices add to the noise level. If the room is large enough, some attendees may be seated away from the conference table, distancing themselves from the microphones. Some of the attendees may not actively participate, or may contribute only occasionally. Their presence, however, adds to the number of sources of room noise as pencil tapping, paper rustling, and side conversations develop. These noise sources further degrade the sound quality experienced by the far-end party.
The majority of teleconferencing systems have microphones deployed at one, two, or at most three locations. The microphones are typically positioned on the surface of a conference table, distributed in a manner that provides the best pickup of the most significant contributors to the meeting. This selection of microphone positions may make some of the contributors difficult to hear. Occasional participants are frequently forced to move closer to a microphone when they speak, creating additional room noise as they switch seats or move chairs.
Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional and traditional approaches will become apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art through comparison of such systems with the present invention as set forth in the remainder of the present application with reference to the drawings.